87 dodge aries. pretty good shape, considering; only 80K miles.
> belongs to little old lady who only uses it to drive to the crack
> house. anyway, i'm driving it on a city street and suddenly smell
> burning rubber. i know what comes next; pow. right rear tire has
> blown; the cause is.... the shock absorber has come apart, and the
> bigger diameter dust shield cylinder on the top half has canted
> sideways and the edge has gouged out the inner sidewall.
>
> on further inspection, nothing has actually broken; the rod coming
> down from the top shock absorber mount through that upper dust shield
> piece isn't broken off, it ends with the chamfer at the end of the
> threads, all intact. apparently the inside movable part of the actual
> shock absorber body, the bottom half, has just unscrewed itself from
> the rod, which has now popped out of the shock absorber body.
>
> not sure if this is the original factory shock or not, or who the
> manufacturer might be; all i can make out is that it says "premium gas
> shock absorber" on it. i assume that means it was a replacement as I
> assume the factory shock doesn't announce itself. whatever it is, i'm
> pretty sure it's more likely to be sears brand or equivalent than Koni
> or equivalent.
>
> so how often does this sort of thing happen?
As long as your shock mounts are ok I wouldn't worry about it. Just get a new shock. The shock has probably been on there a while. With the words "premium gas shock" on it-it's probably a cheaper brand.